John Babtist Perrission is in the Historical Collections of Michigan and is also on the Native American Durant Rolls by Horace B Durant.


John entered the service of Capt. While carrying the mail from Grand Haven to Grandville and Grand Rapids making two trips a week and one trip to Port Sheldon once a week. The first mail that ever entered Grand Rapids, he carried in upon his back from Grand Haven by way of Grandville.

: John blazed the first trail from the mouth of Grand River to Grand Rapids. It was a trail from a little frame building that stood on the corner of Washington and Second Streets in Grand Haven in a south easterly direction to Rosy Mound thence easterly through the present townships of Grand Haven, Robinson, Allendale, Georgetown, Cross, Wyoming near the present site of Jenison, this path was selected so as to avoid the big bayous and the various creeks that had to be crossed. This path afterwards became the Grandville road, and was later cut out by Thomas Gilbert. The work of blazing the trail occupied but one week and consisted of slashing two sides of a tree, and cutting out the underbrush. This trail passed through as unbroken forest in which roamed the wild beasts so plentiful at that time. Many time while enroute all alone would he see the wolfs and other animals passing and repassing his trail, while the deer were to be seen gliding in and out of the bushes seeming to understand they had a friend in the lone human that came and went among them.


: The mail bag was a regular government sack and the trip was made from Grand Haven to Grandville in one day, then to the Rapids and back to Grandville the next day. Sometimes the trip would be made by canoe to Grandville in one day. James Scott kept a store there and it was a stopping place for those who were traveling from point to point, no charge was ever made by Scott for keeping the mail carrier. There were a few families living at Grandville at the time.

: All provisions raised by the Indians were brought in by schooners. The Indians had some farms at the clay banks and furnished the settlers with corn and some other farm products.

: John continued carrying the mail for a period of five years, John making every trip during the time except two or three times when his place was taken by his brother, Joe Parrisen. Joe made a trip by water and when at the Rapids he met with a young girl who was working for Jim Scott, who started down the river in his canoe and the two were found drowned at a point a little above the present village of Lamont. The canoe was so small that it capsized, and the water being cold they were unable to save I themselves, the canoe was found bottom side up near Battle Point, and this led to a search for the bodies which were found.


: When John closed his contract the mail was carried by steamer Governor Mason and in winter by horseback by an Irishman. During the five years of his carrying the mail there came to Grand Haven Levi Shackelton, Joe Lasser, Simeneau, Old Man Vandreezer and family, Clemants and family, Dan Shelby who brought in the schooner Barker, John Barr, Hugh McDonwell, Judge Hathaway, Henry Penoyer, Dr. Williams, Henry Middlemast, Henry Griffin, Clark C. Albee, Henry Warts, the two Gilberts, Frank and Thomas, John T. Davis, Peter De Spelder, Alva Norton.



Wife may be Madeline Peasure sp ? error .

John B is the Brother of Josette Derosier Robinson
Durant Roll # 4 59 5581 PARRISSIEN WILLIAM #3 5578 10 yrs.M GRV HART BORN1900
Durant roll #
4 59 1843 DIVERNEY WILLIAM 1844 52 yrs.M GRV HONOR WAS ANGELINA DIVERNEYS WIFE he did change his name.
JOHN B PERRISSIEN 85
MADELINE Magoligau WIFE 83
Father of John sr. is Jaques Parisian
Children
PARRISSIEN JOHN jr. age 59
PARRISSIEN PATRICK age 57
PARRISSIEN PEARL age 23
PARRISSIEN ROY age 15
PARRISSIEN WILLIAM #3 age 52
PARRISSIEN ED age 33
PARRISSIEN HENRY age 25
PARRISSIEN ISAAC ?

John B Perrissien (HOF.F.) Was the Chief
Children
JOHN Jr.(5575)John Jr. had no children wife died.
Ed (5582)was in HONOR,Mi.in 1910
Patrick ,Roy and william#3 P. moved to HART
Patrick had 6 children Mary neff born 1880,Ed born1877,Pearl born1887,Sarah Hill born 1883,
Roy born 1893,and Henry Perrissien single born1885,
William Perrissien age 52 Married Angeline Diverney,
Mary Vandenberg husband age 45 died 1875
Madeline vandenberg married Harry Gardner.
John's sister Jossette was a mid wife to 100 births in Hart Mi.and was buried in Elbridge Cemetery Hart Mi.

Durant Rolls
4 59 5575 PARRISSIEN, JOHN B
5576 85 M GRV GRAND HAVEN


5576 PARRISSIEN, MADELINE
5575 F GRV DEC'D 1908

Parrisian, Jean Baptiste


: The Story of John Parrisen as told by Uncle John to G. W. McBride, early in the 20th Century.


: John Parrisen was born at Flambeau, Wisconsin, December 22nd 1812. His father was a Frenchman, and his mother a Chippewa or Ojibway Indian. His family consisted of four brothers and two sisters, John was next to the oldest and brought up among the Indians who were located on the reservation in Wisconsin until he was about six or eight years old, when he moved with his mother to Sault Ste Marie in Michigan, they living in a wigwam with the Indians, there being no houses there at that time. The only whites being Frenchmen fur traders and a post of the United States Army. John remained with a mother and became a pilot on the Rapids steering a canoe for the fishermen and hunting with his relatives and friends. He never attended school. When John was about 16 years of age he moved with his mother to Mackinac which was then a trading post, and a post of the army. There was then a store and some log houses covered with ceder bark. The principal inhabitants were Frenchmen and voyagers. At this time there were a great many traders who came to the Island with goods to trade with the Indians for fur and rush carpets. Young John did nothing while at the Island. After the end of about a year John joined an expedition under the management of Louis Campeau, Moran and Richard Godfrey, embarked in a Mackinac Boat manned by six Frenchmen who rowed the boat and one man to steer. This expedition started from the island late in the fall with sixteen boxes of money as a cargo. John was assigned to load and unload the boxes of money and to watch it. The voyage was a long one occupying five or six weeks, the custom was to row during the day when the weather would permit and go ashore and camp at night.


: The expedition had two tents that they pitched, one for the men the other for the traders. It was the duty of John to take his money out and place it in the tents of the owners Campeau, Moran and Godfrey. This money consisted of five and fifty cent pieces and filled these sixteen boxes, which were about a foot square. The expedition was headed for Grand Rapids and arrived at the mouth of Grand River late in the fall of the year either of 1835 or 1836.


: The Rev. W. M. Ferry was at Grand Haven when they arrived, there were also Peter Duverny, Rix Robinson, Zene Windsor and the Ferry family and the Duverny children, consisting of seven boys and three girls. The only houses here then was a log one the Duverny's lived in and an old frame that stood at what is now the corner of Second and Washington Street. And the house in which the Ferry's lived, on the site of the present Kirby House and two houses stood near the present city pump house.


: Yankee Lewis was also here at that time. One of these houses was owned by Campeau and the other by Yankee Lewis. The only cleared land at Grand Haven was a little patch at the foot of what is how Washington Street. The street was cut out and extended up to what is now the Court House. There was a large village of Tawas Indians at what is now Ferrysburg, another village at Beech Tree and another at Bass River and at Spoonville and along the river to the Rapids. These Indians were under the care and subject to their Chief Siganawcose who lived at what is now Ferrysburg.


: There were no whites living between the Rapids and the mouth of the river. The Indians lived by hunting and fishing and owned the country all about. There were no whites living between the island of Mackinac and the mouth of the Grand at that time. The first whites south of the Grand were at St. Joseph whish consisted of a few French families. There were no whites along the Kalamazoo River. There was at the time living at Grand Rapids Campeau, Moran, Godfrey, Daniel Marsac, William Godfrey, one of the Giles, Col. Roberts and a Mr. Barnes.


: All freighting to and from Grand Rapids was done by the river on pole boats, which often took from a week to ten days to make the trip, they had a crew of about seven men, six to pole and one to steer. These boats were long and pointed on on the bow, and would carry a great cargo. The banks of the Grand were an unbroken forest and the wilderness full of wild animals, and the red men. John remained in the employ of Campeau for twenty five years, trading and trafficing with Indians, buying fur and traveling from the Rapids to Manitau and up and down the river. The expedition that brought John to Grand Haven landed at the mouth of Grand River late in the fall they went into camp in a snow storm which covered the ground with about two inches of snow. John was barefooted, but covered his feet with a Canadian blanket. The next morning started for Grand Rapids, and arrived there in the afternoon. He could not speak English at the time but could talk French and Indian. When they arrived at the Rapids there were five or six buildings, small frame shanties, and some log houses. The frame buildings were grouped around the present Campeau Square. Col. Roberts had a store on the site of Spring's store, and Tousen Campeau had a store where the Luce block now stands. Louis Campeau had a store located near where the G.R.&L.R.R. crosses the river.


: There was a large Indian Village across the river near the Phoenix Furniture Factory. These were Tawas, and their chiefs were macniua and Maccatawasa. They lived mostly in log houses but had wigwams, these Indians made maple sugar at Boisfra, about ten miles south of the Rapids the only sugar used was maple, made by Indians.


: When John arrived at the Rapids, Richard Godfrey said to him, "John run into that store and tell the clerk to put some shoes and stockings on your feet," running through the snow barefooted, he went in and got the first pair of shoes he ever had. John went to work doing chores for Richard Godfrey during that winter living with him and working for his board and clothes.


: The only manufacturing there at that time was done by two men--old man Coveau and old PaPau--who were whipsawing, and cut all the lumber used in building the old Rathburn house, and the lumber used in building the first church built by Louis Campeau, that stood a little above the Luce block. The first Catholic priest was Father Vesisca, the first preacher or priest at Grand Rapids.


: In the spring John went to Grand Haven and lived with the Duverney family during the summer and did nothing. In the fall he commenced buying fur for Duverney from the Indians. The principal fur was Coonskin which brought from 25 to 50 cents apiece, while a big deer skin was worth a dollar, and a doe skin was worth 50 cents. In the spring about the 1st of May they went to the Rapids, put their fur in packs or bales, this took from a week to a month, the fur was sent to market by water.


: John entered the service of Capt. While carrying the mail from Grand Haven to Grandville and Grand Rapids making two trips a week and one trip to Port Sheldon once a week. The first mail that ever entered Grand Rapids, he carried in upon his back from Grand Haven by way of Grandville.


: John blazed the first trail from the mouth of Grand River to Grand Rapids. It was a trail from a little frame building that stood on the corner of Washington and Second Streets in Grand Haven in a south easterly direction to Rosy Mound thence easterly through the present townships of Grand Haven, Robinson, Allendale, Georgetown, Cross, Wyoming near the present site of Jenison, this path was selected so as to avoid the big bayous and the various creeks that had to be crossed. This path afterwards became the Grandville road, and was later cut out by Thomas Gilbert. The work of blazing the trail occupied but one week and consisted of slashing two sides of a tree, and cutting out the underbrush. This trail passed through as unbroken forest in which roamed the wild beasts so plentiful at that time. Many time while enroute all alone would he see the wolfs and other animals passing and repassing his trail, while the deer were to be seen gliding in and out of the bushes seeming to understand they had a friend in the lone human that came and went among them.


: The mail bag was a regular government sack and the trip was made from Grand Haven to Grandville in one day, then to the Rapids and back to Grandville the next day. Sometimes the trip would be made by canoe to Grandville in one day. James Scott kept a store there and it was a stopping place for those who were traveling from point to point, no charge was ever made by Scott for keeping the mail carrier. There were a few families living at Grandville at the time.


: All provisions raised by the Indians were brought in by schooners. The Indians had some farms at the clay banks and furnished the settlers with corn and some other farm products.


: John continued carrying the mail for a period of five years, John making every trip during the time except two or three times when his place was taken by his brother, Joe Parrisen. Joe made a trip by water and when at the Rapids he met with a young girl who was working for Jim Scott, who started down the river in his canoe and the two were found drowned at a point a little above the present village of Lamont. The canoe was so small that it capsized, and the water being cold they were unable to save I themselves, the canoe was found bottom side up near Battle Point, and this led to a search for the bodies which were found.


: When John closed his contract the mail was carried by steamer Governor Mason and in winter by horseback by an Irishman. During the five years of his carrying the mail there came to Grand Haven Levi Shackelton, Joe Lasser, Simeneau, Old Man Vandreezer and family, Clemants and family, Dan Shelby who brought in the schooner Barker, John Barr, Hugh McDonwell, Judge Hathaway, Henry Penoyer, Dr. Williams, Henry Middlemast, Henry Griffin, Clark C. Albee, Henry Warts, the two Gilberts, Frank and Thomas, John T. Davis, Peter De Spelder, Alva Norton.


: In the quiet recitals of his life one catches the gleams of the shifting scenes of the settlement of the Grand River Valley, the rise and growth of Grand Rapids and the city of Grand Haven. He is the last link that binds the early past with the present, he had lived to see men come and go, and a great city arise upon the banks of the river that was to him a pathway for the little canoe. His life has been a struggle and his honesty known as has been his gigantic frame and wonderful strength of limb and quickness of movement.


: At one time there was to be a payment at Mackinac, and Campeau said to John there was a chance to make some money in the buying and selling of smoke deer skins, and he and Louis Campeau started for Mackinac on the side wheel steamer Champion and were wind bound in Milwaukee, it being late in the fall. They were boarding in a brick building used for a boarding house. While seated in front of the house they saw a man coming along the street and as he came in front of them he commenced to cramp and falling to the walk died with the cholera, as soon as he was dead a two wheel cart came along and took him away.


: Campeau gave John some money and warned him that it was dangerous to drink anything but brandy and sugar, and cautioned him about going around too much. On the fourth day they left Milwaukee and placed the packs of skins in the stern of the boat. They were then on a lower laker that ran between Chicago and the lower lake ports. The next morning John went to see that the packs were all right, and found a man handling them with a knife in his hand, he said to him "What are you doing there" and he said "I was looking them over". John watched them, sleeping on the skins until they arrived at Mackinac when a well dressed man came and looked the packs over, and seemed to be wanting to open them and remained until the boat moved away, then he sprang abroad and went away. Campeau came with a cart and we carried the skins into Scott's store, went in and locked the door, opened the packs and found a lot of gold and silver and a silver watch, which had been stolen from a trunk on the boat. The man found about the pack was going to mark it so as to know which one had secreted the money. The money was taken in charge by Campeau and John never got a cent for his honesty. At another time John was sent by Albee to Kalamazoo with $6000 in gold, silver and paper money he went by way of the beach from Grand Haven as far as St. Joseph and 'gave it to the foreman in the ship yard at St. Joe for safe keeping. The money was taken in a small shot bag, and the paper money was rolled up and all was wrapped up in an old Canadian blanket and thrown over his shoulder and nothing but himself, armed with a knife and a revolver that Mr. Albee gave him, he carried the money in safety. He stopped at Saugatuck stayed over night leaving his old pack in the bar room where he watched it through the night. Such was his honesty that those who knew him trusted uncounted sums of money to his keeping and never did he betray the confidence imposed.


: Uncle John died at. the advanced age of one hundred and four years.


: At one time when Mrs. T. D. Gilbert of Grand Rapids was visiting in Grand Haven it was arranged for her to call Uncle John by telephone, having been reared at Sault Ste Marie and playing with Indians children she spoke to him in Indian. The telephone being new to Uncle John he exclaimed, "My God where is that Indian."







∼Grand Haven's first Mail carrier.